Thursday Musical Member Patricia Forse

Dear members,

Sad news. Pat Forse passed away on August 27th. She was a longtime member of Thursday Musical and a valued member of the Board of Directors, serving as Financial Oversight Chair and keeping a careful watch over TM finances. Our condolences go out to her family. Details about a memorial service will be forthcoming in the Star Tribune.

Elliot Wilcox, President

February Uptempo

Membership Ticket Announcement

Season Membership tickets will be available at the February 17th Artist Series concert at MacPhail Center for Music at the normal check-in table. If you are not able to attend the February 17th concert, we will mail your ticket packet to you before the March 17th concert.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email Operations Manager, Tara Priolo at tara@thursdaymusical.org.

We look forward to seeing you very soon!

-Tara Priolo
Operations Manager

Upcoming Artist Series Concerts

Community Concert Updates

To my fellow performing members: You will soon be receiving (or have already received) an email inquiry from me about your availability and willingness to perform on a March or April Thursday Musical Community Concert. Please feel free to respond to the email if you are interested and ignore it if you are not interested. In our current environment, many venues, primarily assisted living facilities, are not inviting outside performers in, or they are limiting the number and type of performer. I will work to match venue requirements with performers. We hope to get about 5 or 6 community concerts scheduled before summer and then next season a bigger slate of opportunities. If next year sounds like a more viable option to you please feel free to indicate that to me in your email response.Thank you for your continued support and involvement in Thursday Musical's Community Concert series.

-Nanette Goldman
VP Community Concerts

Performing Member Auditions Applications are now open!

Do you know someone that should audition for Thursday Musical?
Performing members auditions are now open.

January Uptempo

Thursday Musical Mourns the Loss of Past President Marjorie Nordstrom

Open air memorial services for Marj Nordstrom are being planned both locally at Hubbard Church and in Sanibel, Florida. For those interested in an invitation to Zoom into the Sanibel service on Saturday, January 22 at 8:00 am - 9:00 am CST, contact Gloria Garrett at 404-226-3842 or gloria.garrett.marketing@gmail.com.

At Hubbard Church, a Saturday morning service is targeted for July, followed by a lunch reception. Pastor Lauren Hauger and Pastor Holly Aastuen will preside. The service will honor Marj's lifelong passion for music. Ashes will be placed in the memorial garden.

---

Feb 3, 2022 Artist Series Opening Concert: Celebrating Voices

We are excited to present our Opening Concert of this season on Feb 3, 2022 at 7 pm at The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd. Join us for an evening of Celebrating Voices.

Featured on this concert are April Hanson, mezzo soprano accompanied by Dr. Marc Jaros*; Monica Murray, soprano; Jeana Ogren, piano; and Jim Reilly, tenor accompanied by Beatrice Giere, piano. The concert will feature works by Frank Bridge, Peter Erasmus Lange-Müller, Stephen Sondheim, and many more.  

This concert is free and open to the public. 

Health and Safety Requirements Updates: For everyone’s safety, Thursday Musical requires all audience members to wear a non-cloth mask such as a N95, KN95, KF94, or surgical mask. If needed, surgical-type masks will be available. All audience members will also need to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination, including a booster shot, or proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of the performance.

To renew your membership: thursdaymusical.org/become-a-member
*indicates nonmember

-Artist Series VPs
Aja Majkrzak & Kristina Rodel Sorum

---

Performing Member Auditions Applications are now open

Upcoming Artist Series Concerts

December Uptempo: Student Section Applications are Open

Young Artist Scholarship Competition Applications Now Open!

Thursday Musical is pleased to announce that our Young Artist Scholarship Competition applications are now open!  The competition will take place online in the same fashion as last year, but we hope to have an in-person Winners' Concert this year.  Registration is now open online and competition rules are available on our website at thursdaymusical.org.
 
Students need to apply on-line by January 28, 2022 and submit their video performances for the competition by February 18, 2022.  Please encourage students to apply.   Up to $20,000 may be awarded this year for students in middle school (grades 7-8), high school (grades 9-12) and college (up to age 25 on 2/1/22).

Application and competition questions can be directed to studentsection@thursdaymusical.org OR tara@thursdaymusical.org.  We look forward to your submissions!

Good luck!
- Student Section Chairs

From the President: Vivace Initiative

Thursday Musical is going through a challenging time.  Now more than ever, the Vivace Initiative can help us avoid cuts to services important to the mission of Thursday Musical – “to establish and sustain a partnership between performers and audiences...”

The goal of this initiative is to keep offering membership at an affordable price and, at the same time, secure the long-term stability of Thursday Musical.

Soon you will receive a letter in the mail with a donation form enclosed. Please consider making a contribution.
 
People like you keep Thursday Musical healthy and vibrant!  Your tax deductible gift will surely make a difference.

-Elliot Wilcox
President

Community Concert Update

With many of our Community Concert partners in a holding pattern about outside visitors, we don't have concerts slated yet for specific dates.  Some have asked us to get back to them in the spring, when the pandemic situation may be clearer. Some have not responded to our inquiries. I imagine there are broad staffing changes throughout the assisted living industry, which is the type of venue for most of our community concerts. I am in preliminary conversations with Walker Methodist and Waverley Gardens about setting some dates. Other interested venues are Covenant Village in Golden Valley and Summit Place in Eden Prairie. Community Concerts will not begin by January but perhaps by the end of February.

-Nanette Goldman
Community Concerts Chair

November 15, 2021 Uptempo

Give to the Max Day is November 18, 2021

From the President:

Thursday Musical is participating in the exciting 24-hour, statewide event called Give to the Max Day. Your generous support makes a meaningful difference to the mission of Thursday Musical, allowing us to perform great classical music throughout the Greater Twin Cities area, to present fine new compositions written here and abroad, and to offer scholarship opportunities for music students through our Young Artist Scholarship Competition.

A contribution in any amount is greatly appreciated!
Consider giving at thursdaymusical.org/give-to-the-max.

Elliot Wilcox

In-Person Auditions Return

Thursday Musical is pleased to announce that we will be holding live, in-person auditions for new performing members on March 19th, 2022, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at MacPhail Center for Music.  Musicians interested in auditioning can find more information, along with the audition requirements and application, on our website at https://thursdaymusical.org/auditions.  Applications can be submitted beginning January 3rd, 2022, and must be received no later than February 18th.  

Mary Hunt
Vice President, Auditions

November 1st, 2021 Uptempo: Artist Series Concert Announcement

Life in Crescendo

I am intrigued with the musical metaphor of living life in crescendo, not diminuendo, always looking to expand and grow rather than minimize and contract. 

As musicians and supporters of classical music, we at Thursday Musical have had to figure out how to keep ourselves motivated to practice, to perform, to support. And perhaps for most, this time of isolation, separation, and fear has resulted in our lives living in the diminuendo mode.   Our live performances were canceled, we had to rely on Zoom and online streaming, and our relationships had to be nurtured at a distance. 

But Thursday Musical is now READY to relaunch; to schedule live performances, salon concerts, and community concerts at the onset of 2022!  Crescendo is coming back in a big way! Be sure to watch for details as the performances are scheduled in the various concert venues, including MacPhail Center for Music and Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd.

But we need our members to rejoin, invite others, invigorate, and be overall enthusiastic ambassadors for Thursday Musical!  As of this writing, we have 129 renewals and 1 new member. That’s a great start, but we can do even better! 

 Let's live CRESCENDO together as we anticipate 2022 in person!

To renew or become a member visit: https://thursdaymusical.org/become-a-member

-Carolyn Diamond, VP Membership

Artist Series Update

Please welcome Kristina Rodel as the new Vice President of the Artist Series. We have been working together, along with our president, to schedule our concert dates, which you will see below. This year, we are trying out both morning and evening concerts, and using two different venues, to expand your concert going options.

Many of our performers this season have been waiting patiently to perform since the pandemic first shut down live performances. We're asking our audience to be patient with us as we nail down the final schedule. But we would like to highlight our newest member who will be performing this season: Amos Lucidi, piano

Amos is studying a Doctor of Musical Arts program in Piano Performance at the University of Minnesota under the guidance of the Professor Alexander Braginsky. Regarded as one of the most outstanding young Mexican musicians, Amos Lucidi has performed extensively as a soloist and in chamber groups in Mexico, Italy, France and the United Kingdom, participating in important festivals such as the International Festival of Mayan Culture and Merida Fest. He has been soloist on several occasions with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Yucatan. More recent appearances include recitals in venues such as St. James’s Piccadilly and the Old Royal Naval College in London, l’Eglise de Saint-Merry in Paris and Teatro Clitunno in Trevi, Italy.

YOUNG ARTIST SCHOLARSHIP COMPETITION WINNERS' CONCERT FRIDAY!

From President Sylvia Wilson:

Preston Duncan, 2021 Teacher of the Year

Thursday Musical members, please join us for the Thursday Musical Winners' Concert this coming Friday, April 23rd on Zoom at 7:00 p.m. Members will receive the Zoom link 24 hours before the event, if you would like to attend and are not a member, please email tara@thursdaymusical.org by Thursday, April 22. The concert will feature the ten first-place winners performing one of their winning selections. We will also honor our 2021 Thursday Musical Teacher of the Year, Preston Duncan, saxophone teacher at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

William Gannon, 1st Place High School Piano

With the many Covid pandemic challenges facing Thursday Musical last fall, we had to get creative. We brainstormed ways that we could make this happen. After researching how several other musical organizations had managed this task, Thursday Musical made the decision to take our Young Artist Scholarship Competition on-line posting the rules on November 30th, 2020. Operations Manager Tara Priolo had the skills to help make the video-submissions possible and judging possible. 140 students registered which is a higher number than we have had for a few years. We hired 18 judges. Tara made instructional videos for both the students and the judges in how to do their tasks. Things ran pretty smoothly and all felt it was very a successful competition. One of the pluses we found was that it allowed both students and judges that lived far away from the Twin Cities area to participate without all the hours of driving.

Olga Kossovich, 1st Place College Strings

Thursday Musical awarded $17,100 in scholarships to 31 students this year. The high levels of student performances never cease to amaze us!  This was so successful; we will be evaluating how we may want to run our competitions in the future now that we have tried it this way.

Thanks to all of our members who donated to sponsor or support the scholarships! We champion local music!

ANNUAL MEETING

Please also put our Annual Meeting by Zoom on your calendars for Thursday, May 20 at 10:00 a.m. MacPhail at this time is planning to be open next fall.  There is lots of planning to be done.  Volunteers will be needed for leadership positions as we move forward to reopening our organization after the pandemic is over. We are especially interested in people with video-editing or social media experience.  Please contact President Sylvia Wilson to volunteer at sylvia@thursdaymusical.com in the next two weeks.

THURSDAY MUSICAL MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY

On-line or printed Thursday Musical directory will be available this week.  Tara will send out details soon.

129th Season Opening Concert

Thursday Musical is pleased to announce the beginning of its 129th season of connecting our outstanding Classical Music artists with our community. We champion local music! 

In response to the national health emergency our usual planning stages had to change. We are unable to put out a season brochure as everything is still in flux.  But Thursday Musical is determined to move forward, planning in increments of 3-month periods, until the situation stabilizes and things becomes clearer.  We will be using Zoom to share our first 3 concerts.  We know how important music is to our community!

Our free Opening Concert, “Music, the Thread of Hope”  will be at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, October 1, 2020.  We have arranged with MacPhail and our audio engineer Bill Lund to record our performing artists on-stage in Antonello Hall at the MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis.  We will share their performances with you using Zoom on October 1st and continue in this manner until we are able to return to in-person concerts.  MacPhail will be reevaluating  when to open its building up to the public again, possibly at the end of January.

Featured on our Opening Concert will be some of our new Artist members:  pianist Sara Langmead, mezzo-soprano Kristina Rodel Sorum accompanied by Mary Goetz, and the Clarianne Duo of violinist Aja Majkrzak and harpist Hannah Palmquist.  We will be venturing into new territory with these Zoom concerts and hope that you will enjoy and be inspired by their music.

The Zoom connection will be available on our website, thursdaymusical.org, our Facebook page and e-mailed out to members a a few days previous to the concert. For information on how to download Zoom onto your computer please contact our Operations Manager, Tara Priolo at Tara@thursdaymusical.org.

Sylvia Wilson